The Mexican Revolution

Pancho Villa

Poor Mexico... so far from God, so close to the United States." - Porfirio Díaz

After the Mexican-American War, President Antonio López de Santa Anna was removed from power and a more liberal government was established. With the election of Benito Juárez, this government pushed a series of land reforms and attacks on the Catholic Church, which led indigenous people and peasants to rebel in the Reform War, which lasted form 1858 to 1861.

At the end of the war, President Juárez announced Mexico would no longer pay back any foreign loans, causing French Emperor Napoléon III to invade. The French were pushed back on May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), 1862, but captured Mexico City the following year and appointed an Austrian archduke named Maximilian to be the new Mexican Emperor.

Emperor Maximilian was unpopular with the liberals he replaced. Instituting a series of liberal reforms to please them, he also made himself unpopular with conservatives. Benito Juárez soon recaptured Mexico City and executed Maximilian. For the next decade, however, Juárez was continually re-elected to the presidency, and voter fraud was suspected. A rebellion against him with the cry of "No Re-Election" was launched under the leadership of Porfirio Díaz, who captured the capital and became president in 1876.

Díaz amended the constitution to forbid re-election to the presidency. He was subsequently re-elected to the presidency in 1884, 1888, 1892, 1896, 1902, 1906, and 1908.

Although the Mexican economy prospered under Díaz, he was finally overthrown in 1911 by Francisco Madero, launching a series of civil wars that would last for 30 years. Madero himself was overthrown in 1913 in a coup by the conservative general Victoriano Huerta, who was overthrown a year later by constitutionalist Venustiano Carranza. Sustained rebellions were launched against Carranza by his former allies, Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa, both of which would last for decades. Carranza was eventually overthrown by one of his generals, Álvaro Obregón, who became the first Mexican revolutionary leader to sell out to - excuse me, gain recognition from - the United States. This granted access to money and supplies and allowed him to slowly put down the remaining rebellions and peacefully transfer power to his successor, Plutarco Calles.

A devout atheist, Calles passed laws making the Catholic priesthood illegal and shutting down monasteries, convents, and religious schools, which caused a peasant rebellion over 50,000 strong, in what became known as the Cristero War. The war ended in 1926 after 100,000 casualties on both sides. Only 334 of Mexico's 4400 priests avoided exile and death.

Calles' unpopularity allowed Obregón to become president again in 1928 with "100% of the vote," but he was shot by a Catholic assassin before taking office. Calles returned to power and founded the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico as a single-party state for the next seventy-one years.